Shulamit Lapid
Known for her contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry writing, Shulamit Lapid was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. Her first novel to gain popularity, Gai oni, was praised for its feminist historical fiction narrative and was the first Israeli book to be labelled “feminist.” Her Lizzie Badihi series (1989-2000) delved into the genre of spinster detective, focusing on a lower middle-class divorced journalist living in Be’er Sheva. Her later work focuses on social and feminist consciousness, with her 1998 novel Ezel Babou focusing on the lives of foreign illegal immigrant laborers in Israel. She has won many awards, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature (1987), the Book Publishers Association’s Gold and Platinum Prizes for Nunia, and the Steimatzky Prize for Human Error.
Personal Life and Family
One of Israel’s best-known contemporary writers of fiction, drama, and poetry, Shulamit Lapid was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. Her father, David Giladi (1909-2009), was one of the founders of the daily Ma’ariv newspaper. She studied Middle Eastern studies and English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1956 to 1957 but did not complete a degree. She is the widow of journalist Joseph (Tommy) Lapid (1931-2008), who from 1999 to 2005 was a member of the Lit. "assembly." The 120-member parliament of the State of Israel.Knesset. They have a daughter, Meirav, and a son, Yair Lapid, who is an Israeli politician and journalist who serves as the Alternate Prime Minister of Israel in 2021. Their oldest daughter, Michal, was killed in a car accident in 1984.
Gai Oni and Feminist Literary Works
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Later Writings
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Critical Acclaim and Honors
From 1985 to 1987, Lapid served as the first woman elected to chair the Hebrew Writers’ Association. She has won both the Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature (1987) and the International Theater Institute Award (1988). Lapid was awarded the Book Publishers Association’s Gold and Platinum Prizes for her book Nunia, the Book Publishers Association’s Gold Prize for Maybe They Were Not (2011) and for Human’s Error (2013). She was also awarded the Steimatzky Prize for Human’s Error.
Selected Works by Shulamit Lapid
Short Stories
Mazal dagim [Pisces] (1969); Shalvat shotim [The Calm of Fools] (1974); Kadahat [Fever] (1979); Mah mesameah akavishim [Happy Spiders] (1990).
Novels
Gai oni (1982).
Ka-heres ha-nishbar (As a Broken Vessel, 1984).
Mekomon (Local Paper, 1989).
Pitui (Bait, 1992).
Hatakhshit (The Jewel, 1993).
Hol ba-enayim (Sand in your Eyes, 1997).
Ezel Babou (Chez Babou, 1998).
Pilegesh ba-giv’ah (Concubine on the Hill, 1999).
Havat ha-almot (2005).
Veulai Lo Hayu (Maybe They Were Not, 2011).
Ta’ut Enosh (Human Error, 2012).
Parpar Ba-Machsan (Butterfly in the Shed, 2020).
Novella
Ha-Safsal (The Bench, 2000).
Poetry
Shirei halon (Window Poems, 1988).
Plays
Rekhush natush (Abandoned Property, 1987).
Rehem pundaki (Surrogate Mother, 1991).
Mif’al hayyav (His Life’s Work, 1992).
Haflagot (Sailings, 1994)
For Children
Shpiz (1971).
Na’arat ha-halomot (The Girl of Dreams, 1985).
Ha-tanin Mizrayyim (Egypt the Crocodile, 1987).
Oded ha-melukhlakh (Dirty Oded, 1988).
Oreah (The Visitor, 1988).
Ha-Rabbinic ordinationsemikhah Zehavah (Zehavah the Blanket, 1998).
Feldman; Yael S. No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women’s Fiction. New York: 1999 (Hebrew edition, Tel Aviv: 2001).
From Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century. Editor: Sorrel Kerbel. Copyright © 2003. Reproduced by permission of Routledge/Taylor and Francis Books, Inc.
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